Cysts and Lumps Are the Easiest to Aspirate

Anne Barger, DVM, MS, DACVP, clinical professor in pathobiology at University of Illinois, discusses why cysts and lumps are the easiest—and most common—to aspirate.

"Cysts and lumps are probably the easiest thing to aspirate and practice, because you can palpate them. You can feel it, you can get your fingers around it and hold it, and put a needle in it, and it doesn't require any extra imaging or anything, it's very quick. So, those are and those are things that owners notice too, you know they're petting their dog and they're like uh there's this mass. So, that's another reason why we so those aspirated very commonly.

Cytology is a universal technique, people across the globe do cytology. So, you have big diagnostic laboratories across the globe that offer cytology and have pathologists who interpret cytological specimens, because it's so commonly done."